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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978872">Overdose</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes'>lesbianettes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drugs, Ecstasy - Freeform, Heroin, M/M, Partying, Recreational Drug Use, The Eighties, drug overdose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:54:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978872</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The much requested time that Nicky overdosed in the eighties.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Overdose</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For whumptober day 22, drugged. Check out all of my whumptober fics under #emwt</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It is the sort of evening that burns deeply in one’s chest, while the lights flutter in rainbows and circles and strobes over sweat-damp and glitter-coated skin. There’s a hint of a buzz fluttering through Nicky’s skin, not enough to truly mollify the desire to drown himself in warmth. These years are difficult ones. Booker is angry and Andy is cynical and Joe is here, always here, but it feels like the world has become determined to rip them apart. It is in these dark clubs that they are allowed to be close enough to touch without the shelter of privacy or the threat of something much worse than a beating. Joe’s firm hips against his ass round things out just enough for his heart to beat. But it’s not enough to relax fully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where’s your head, babe?” Joe whispers against his ear. He uses the opportunity to grind against Nicky as well, remind him how close they have the liberty to be. “Do we need to go home?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need some tar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joe laughs and promises the get some, vanishing from behind Nicky with a low promise to get him something and return quickly. Nicky continues to dance in his absence, bouncing from person to person. There’s a woman he dances with, her eyes sharp with sparkly liner, who presses a slip of paper patterned like a smile onto his bottom lip. He takes it onto his tongue immediately. It’s probably E or LSD, something that won’t really affect him as much as it should, so he doesn’t think twice about the way it dissolves like a sugar cube. It’ll buzz him more. But not like the heroin will, especially when it is Joe’s warm hands that will steady his arm and press the needle into his tender vein. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your face is like the moon,” she giggles, trailing her narrow fingers across the bridge of his nose. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smiles at her. “So I have heard.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They wind up dancing together for quite some time until Joe returns and leads him off to a less crowded area of the club, if there is such a thing. They find seats and Joe is careful, practiced but gentle in the way he uses his own belt to mock a tourniquet on Nicky’s upper arm. Even in such poor lighting, Joe finds his vein and presses the sharp slant of the needle straight in. The drug is cold when it enters. But slowly, it makes him warm, until his chest feels filled with sand and his head goes fuzzy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Still with me, amore?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In every breath of air.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Such a beautiful smile washes over Joe’s face, such that Nicky can’t help kissing him breathless and then burying his face in the crook of his neck. He smells like sweat- no cologne- but it’s in such a way that it doesn’t bother him. The sweat is an aphrodisiac that threatens to destroy Nicky with its perfume and as he swings his whole body into Joe’s lap, he wonders if his heart has always beat so slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nods, but it’s too slow. He doesn’t remember how to breathe. Still, he kisses Joe’s cheeks and jaw in a sloppy movement that doesn’t really do anything. Maybe the paper is hitting him, mixing so heavily with the heroin that his body is confused on who it should listen to first. If it should listen to either. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nicky. Nicolo, cuore, che c'è? Nicolo!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joe’s hands cup his face as though it was sculpted just for this purpose. What is there to live for, except for this reverent grasp of his lover? He sighs, at peace in it, until his body begins to jerk like it has been possessed by some otherworldly creature. The floor finds his back. It is cold. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He can’t breathe. But ah, a lovely death this is, in its heat and chill and the wau his lungs fold into delicate envelopes. It hurts. It feels beautiful. His head hits this floor some eight or nine times that he registers, until it begins to fade completely from his weak grasp and he can only see the flash of brightly colored lights, flicking in a repetitive show across the slope of Joe’s jaw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Amore mio,” he breathes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That is the last breath he takes.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>tumblr @nilestiddies</p></blockquote></div></div>
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